EP0898298A1 - Determination of the thickness of a denuded zone in a silicon wafer - Google Patents
Determination of the thickness of a denuded zone in a silicon wafer Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- EP0898298A1 EP0898298A1 EP97830354A EP97830354A EP0898298A1 EP 0898298 A1 EP0898298 A1 EP 0898298A1 EP 97830354 A EP97830354 A EP 97830354A EP 97830354 A EP97830354 A EP 97830354A EP 0898298 A1 EP0898298 A1 EP 0898298A1
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- European Patent Office
- Prior art keywords
- denuded
- wafer
- depth
- thickness
- layer
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- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L22/00—Testing or measuring during manufacture or treatment; Reliability measurements, i.e. testing of parts without further processing to modify the parts as such; Structural arrangements therefor
- H01L22/10—Measuring as part of the manufacturing process
- H01L22/12—Measuring as part of the manufacturing process for structural parameters, e.g. thickness, line width, refractive index, temperature, warp, bond strength, defects, optical inspection, electrical measurement of structural dimensions, metallurgic measurement of diffusions
Definitions
- the present invention relates to fabrication processes of integrated circuits and more in particular to methods for controlling the quality of monocrystalline silicon substrates.
- the silicon generally used for fabricating integrated circuits is grown using a technique referred to as the Czochralski (CZ) technique and therefore contains oxygen in a concentration comprised generally between 5 and 10*10 17 atoms cm -3 (ASTM 83 units) .
- CZ Czochralski
- a substantially oxygen-free silicon monocrystal may be grown by other techniques such as the so-called "flow-zone” technique but an oxygen-free silicon is unsuitable for fabricating integrated circuits because the presence of oxygen improves its mechanical properties.
- the presence of oxygen may generate defects in the crystalline structure of silicon unless great care is exercised in exposing the substrate to particularly critical conditions during the fabricating process of integrated circuits.
- Oxygen precipitation induces the formation of extensive defects (dislocations, staking faults) and may degrade the performance of integrated circuits if these defects occur in the active areas of the devices.
- the defects induced by oxygen precipitation grow sufficiently far from the active areas of the devices, for instance deep in the bulk of the monocrystal wafer, they tend to have a positive effect as they act as gathering centers of metal impurities (atoms of transition metals of the periodic table) .
- treatment techniques have been developed for obtaining silicon wafers where defects induced by oxygen precipitation exist only in an innermost region (bulk) in respect to the wafer thickness, and have oxygen defect-free superficial layers (denuded zone) .
- Wafers so processed are then used for fabricating integrated devices essentially in the defect-free surface region also referred to as "denuded-zone" of one of the two sides of the wafer of monocrystalline silicon.
- the thickness of the denuded zone depends on the properties of the starting material, on the denuding pre-treatment and/or in many cases on the thermal treatments that are contemplated in the specific fabrication process of the integrated devices, so that it becomes necessary to monitor the actual thickness of the denuded zone to ensure that the active regions be reliably defined in defect-free regions on the silicon wafer.
- oxygen precipitation in the bulk should be moderate in order to be beneficial .
- density and size of oxygen precipitate in the bulk of a wafer should be relatively small and the techniques nowadays used to measure the thickness of denuded zones often fail under conditions of insufficient density of oxygen precipitate density in the bulk.
- Denuded zone thicknesses are commonly measured by means of microscopy techniques.
- the monocrystal cleavage, the selective etching and inspections of the samples by a suitable microscopy technique are limited by an insufficient selectivity of the etching of the sample surface.
- TEM Transmission Electron Microscopy
- the density and size of defects in the bulk of the wafer of monocrystalline silicon tend, for other reasons, to be particularly small in present days wafers and as a consequence the monitoring of the depth of the denuded zone by the known techniques becomes problematic.
- the monitoring of the denuded zone thickness could be performed, by electrical methods, under favorable conditions.
- the most reliable of these techniques is the so-called Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC).
- EBIC Electron Beam Induced Current
- This method is very sensitive but time consuming, besides it requires a laborious sample preparation. In any case, it remains a destructive technique. Therefore, the EBIC technique remains unsuitable as effective monitoring technique and for producing maps of the depth of a denuded zone in terms of compatibility of the time required and of costs to implement a reliable process quality control.
- excess minority carriers are generated by a laser beam that illuminates the front of a wafer and are collected in the space charge region of a Schottky contact which may be established either on the wafer back-side (backside photocurrent or BPC) or on the same illuminated or frontside of the wafer(frontside photocurrent of FPC) .
- BPC backside photocurrent
- the sample is dipped in a diluted HF solution to establish a Schottky contact on one side of the wafer passivate the surface layer states on the other side.
- the injection level ⁇ n/p o (where ⁇ n is the concentration of excess minority carriers and p o is the equilibrium concentration of minority carriers) can be varied by varying the power of the illuminating laser.
- FPC measurements are used when the lifetime in the sample under consideration is so low that practically no current could be gathered at a contact established on the backside of the wafer. This is often the case in presence of oxygen precipitates, and thus FPC measurements are more suited than BPC measurements in view of the objective of the present invention.
- SPV Surface Photovoltage Measurement
- Surface photovoltage measurements are carried out by illuminating the sample with lights of different wavelengths.
- the minority carriers generated are collected in a depletion region on the same wafer surface (at a certain distance from the illuminated area) and produce a variation of the surface potential, which is recorded in function of the wavelength of the illuminating light and therefore in function of the penetration depth of the radiation in the semiconductor crystal.
- the method of surface photovoltage measurements that is of carrier lifetime measurements, has been proposed as a way to assess the depth of a defect-free superficial layer of a wafer of semiconducting monocrystalline silicon when the density of the defects induced by oxygen precipitates in the bulk of the silicon is sufficiently high .
- the nondestructive method of the invention consists in:
- any technique for measuring the effective diffusion length or lifetime of charge carriers, suitable for low injection level may be satisfactorily utilized, preferably the lifetime measurements of excess minority carriers injected in a defined semiconductor zone, are performed by surface photovoltage methods.
- the results obtained with the method of the invention were compared with direct observations carried out on the same samples by conventional destructive methods, based on microscopic observation techniques, in order to have a measure of the degree of reliability of the indirectly data obtained by the method of the invention.
- the wafers were cut, cleaved, selectively etched with an etchant solution known in the trade as "Secco d'Aragona" and finally inspected by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) or by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM).
- SEM Scanning Electron Microscope
- AFM Atomic Force Microscope
- the same samples were also inspected by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM).
- the denuded zone was removed completely from the backside of the sample wafers by lapping, and the resulting damage caused by lapping was eliminated by etching the silicon for removing the highly stressed layer left by the lapping process.
- the total thickness stripped off was about 150 ⁇ m which is surely greater than the expected depth of a denuded zone of a wafer treated for this purpose.
- Fig. 1 shows a typical map of minority carriers diffusion lengths obtained by an FPC Elymat technique in the bulk region of the wafer silicon containing oxygen precipitates.
- the concentric ring aspect of the map reflecting the crystal growth conditions is immediately recognized by a person conversant with the Elymat technique and instrumentation and represents a "marker" of oxygen precipitation.
- the measurements of the charge carriers lifetime were analyzed in function of the injection level for some of the most common contaminants of the silicon in order to identify for certainty the dominant recombination center.
- Fig. 2 shows the measured lifetime which differed by about one order of magnitude among the samples, however the same dependence of the lifetime on the injection level ⁇ n/p o was verified in all the samples.
- lifetime measurements in function of the injection level, in conjunction with lifetime maps confirm the hypothesis that oxygen precipitates represented, at least in the examined samples, the dominant recombination center.
- the SPV technique is intrinsically suited under conditions of low level injection, and from the confirmatory results obtained from Elymat tests, this technique confirms itself as being extremely sensitive to oxygen precipitation.
- an SPV data processing is capable of producing an estimate of the effective diffusion length L f , resulting from an average between the diffusion length in the denuded zone and the diffusion length in the underlying defective bulk region.
- the processing of SPV measurement data on a portion of the surface of a wafer having a denuded zone and an internal or bulk region of where there exist oxygen precipitates and associated defects the SPV signal data must be processed by considering the sample dishomogeneous in function of depth. This can be done in different ways, for instance through a numerical solution of the equations that govern the evolution of the charge carriers concentration in the semiconductor. There exist computer programs that are specifically suited for this purpose, capable of accounting for the dependence of defects concentration from the depth.
- L diff is the diffusion length of minority carriers
- L DZ is the diffusion length of minority carriers for a recombination center density of the denuded zone
- L def is the diffusion length of minority carriers in the defective bulk region (L DZ >>L def )
- x is the depth coordinate
- t DZ is the thickness of the denuded zone (DZ).
- a direct measure of L def is obtained by performing the measurements on the backside of the wafer or on the portion of the surface of the wafer where the DZ layer has been purposely stripped off, that is by measuring the diffusion length of minority carrier in the defective bulk region.
- the diffusion function V ph (z) has only one fit parameter, that is the depth t DZ of the denuded zone DZ.
- the depth t DZ of the denuded zone present on the frontside of the wafer calculated according to the method of the invention was 59 ⁇ m.
- the sample shows a marked dishomogeneity in function of depth from the surface.
- the curve of the SPV measurements (conventionally ⁇ /SV in function of 1/ ⁇ where ⁇ is the incident flux and ⁇ is the absorption coefficient) appears substantially linear and this was surprisingly observed in all the samples with a denuded zone.
- This linearity of the curves obtained through SPV measurements at different wavelengths reveals the unreliability of assuming that such a linearity could be indicative of uniformity. The reason for such a scarce correlation between the two aspects may be understood by observing the minority carrier density profiles shown in Fig. 4.
- the excess minority carriers profiles extend over a significantly larger depth than that of the denuded zone . Therefore, for all the different penetration depths of the monochromatic lights used, the resulting photovoltage signal derives from an average among the characteristics of density of recombination centers of the denuded layer DZ and of the underlying defective bulk region.
- the nondestructive character of the SPV technique in conjunction with the relative ease with which the denuded zone may be stripped off, for example, from the entire backside of the wafer by lapping and/or etching, makes the method of the invention suitable for implementing an effective and relatively little costly quality control of the fabrication process, with important beneficial repercussions on the yield.
- the estimation method of the invention may also make use of measuring techniques of lifetime or effective diffusion length of minority charge carriers different from the SPV techniques, as long as equally effective as the SPV technique, under conditions of a low injection level.
- the so-called microPCD microwave-detected Photoconductive Decay
- a technique effective under conditions of low injection may be viable alternative to the SPV technique.
Abstract
Description
- stripping off by mechanical lapping and/or by wet or dry etching the denuded layer of the semiconductor wafer from at least a portion of the surface, preferably from the backside (where it can be removed from the whole surface) or from a certain area of the frontside of the wafer;
- measuring a surface photovoltage signal in function of the injection depth of charge carriers "injected" by a photoelectric effect or by an equivalent injection method in a certain area of the wafer surface, on a portion of surface having such denuded layer and on a portion stripped of said denuded layer;
- solving through a nonlinear "best-fit" procedure based on the measured values of the surface photovoltage signal function and using as a fitting parameter the thickness of the denuded zone or layer, or through equivalent numerical methods of the diffusion equation of charge carriers injected in the two distinct portions of surface.
LO-HI Process (a) No denuding treatment High temperature diffusion | Process (b) Denuding treatment High temperature diffusion | Process (c) Denuding treatment No further High temp.diffusion |
◆ 1100°C, 4 h, N2/O2 | ◆ 1100°C, 4 h, N2/O2 | |
◆ 800°C, 1 h, wet O2 + 775°C, 1 | ◆ 800°C, 1 h, wet O2 + 775°C, 1 | ◆ 800°C, 45 min, wet O2 |
◆ 1175°C, 2 | ◆ 1175°C, 2 | ◆ 620°C, 1 h 45 min, N2 |
◆ 1100°C; 1 | ◆ 1100°C; 1 | ◆ 775°C, 2 |
◆ 800°C, 1 h, wet O2 + 775°C, h 50 min | ◆ 800°C, 45 min, wet O2 | ◆ 920°C, 6 h wet O2 + 1 h N2 |
◆ 920°C, 6 h wet O2 + 1 h N2 | ◆ 620°C, 1 h 45 min, N2 | |
◆ 775°C, 2 | ||
◆ 920°C, 6 h wet O2 + 1 h N2 |
ρ (Ωcm) | Process | Ldef (µm) | Leff (µm) | tdz (µm) | |||
Edge | Center | Edge | Center | Edge | Center | ||
2 | a | 15 | 15.6 | 28.3 | 33.3 | 49.3 | 58.7 |
10 | a | 11.5 | 8.2 | 13.1 | 12.0 | 15.3 | 19.9 |
10 | a | 13.2 | 11.2 | 15.9 | 13.0 | 18.9 | 14.6 |
10 | a | 5.15 | 7.32 | 18.9 | 23.0 | 43.2 | 49.3 |
2 | b | 8.61 | 7.43 | 29.4 | 26.5 | 61.7 | 57.1 |
2 | b | 26.8 | 33.6 | 50.1 | 51.7 | 78.4 | 81.8 |
2 | b | 9.67 | 7.75 | 29.3 | 26.5 | 62.9 | 56.9 |
2 | b | 5.83 | 6.66 | 27.5 | 27.1 | 61.6 | 59.7 |
10 | b | 21.5 | 18.8 | 35.7 | 37.7 | 56.6 | 65.4 |
10 | b | 18.4 | 16.5 | 34.1 | 34.6 | 60.0 | 62.1 |
10 | b | 20.3 | 18.7 | 35.9 | 34.8 | 59 | 59.3 |
2 | c | 21.7 | 22.6 | 25.2 | 24.1 | 24.9 | 17.8 |
2 | c | 2.62 | 2.84 | 12.7 | 12.9 | 32.2 | 32.5 |
2 | c | 21.7 | 22.5 | 26.1 | 23.3 | 27.7 | 14.7 |
2 | c | 1.69 | 3.41 | 11.8 | 12.9 | 31.2 | 31.6 |
10 | c | 15.2 | 16.3 | 18.0 | 18.4 | 20.1 | 18.1 |
10 | c | 12.8 | 12.8 | 16.2 | 15.9 | 20.9 | 19.6 |
10 | c | 15.9 | 13.7 | 17.4 | 16.5 | 15.7 | 19.4 |
Claims (3)
- Nondestructive method for estimating the depth of a denuded superficial layer in respect to a relatively defective bulk region of a monocrystalline semiconductor wafer by measuring lifetime, that is the effective diffusion length of excess minority charge carriers, under conditions of low injection level, characterized in that comprises the following steps:stripping off said denuded layer from at least a portion of the surface of the wafer;separately measuring lifetime or the effective diffusion length of injected excess minority charge carriers on said portion of wafer surface freed of said denuded superficial layer and on a portion of wafer surface having said denuded layer, while injecting said minority charge carriers for a depth sufficient to encompass both said denuded superficial layer and at least a portion of said bulk region;calculating from the results of said measurements the thickness of said denuded superficial layer by a best-fit procedure or numerical processing.
- The method according to claim 1, characterized in that said separate measurements of lifetime or effective diffusion length are carried out with an SPV technique by illuminating an area of the wafer surface with monochromatic light of a wavelength ranging between 800nm and 1000nm.
- The method according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprisesexpressing the SPV measurement data in function of the penetration depth of the incident monochromatic light and calculating said thickness by a best-fit procedure using as a fitting parameter a thickness value of said denuded superficial layer.
Priority Applications (3)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
DE69738129T DE69738129D1 (en) | 1997-07-15 | 1997-07-15 | Determination of the thickness of the Blosszone in a silicon wafer |
EP97830354A EP0898298B1 (en) | 1997-07-15 | 1997-07-15 | Determination of the thickness of a denuded zone in a silicon wafer |
US09/108,439 US6197606B1 (en) | 1997-07-15 | 1998-07-01 | Determination of the thickness of a denuded zone in a silicon wafer |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
EP97830354A EP0898298B1 (en) | 1997-07-15 | 1997-07-15 | Determination of the thickness of a denuded zone in a silicon wafer |
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
EP0898298A1 true EP0898298A1 (en) | 1999-02-24 |
EP0898298B1 EP0898298B1 (en) | 2007-09-12 |
Family
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Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
EP97830354A Expired - Lifetime EP0898298B1 (en) | 1997-07-15 | 1997-07-15 | Determination of the thickness of a denuded zone in a silicon wafer |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
---|---|
US (1) | US6197606B1 (en) |
EP (1) | EP0898298B1 (en) |
DE (1) | DE69738129D1 (en) |
Cited By (1)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP1758158A3 (en) * | 2005-08-26 | 2009-07-22 | Sumco Corporation | Silicon wafer surface defect evaluation method |
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JP4605876B2 (en) * | 2000-09-20 | 2011-01-05 | 信越半導体株式会社 | Silicon wafer and silicon epitaxial wafer manufacturing method |
US20040010394A1 (en) * | 2002-07-15 | 2004-01-15 | Seh America, Inc. | Systems, methods and computer program products for determining contaminant concentrations in semiconductor materials |
US6836139B2 (en) * | 2002-10-22 | 2004-12-28 | Solid State Measurments, Inc. | Method and apparatus for determining defect and impurity concentration in semiconducting material of a semiconductor wafer |
WO2004084279A1 (en) * | 2003-03-14 | 2004-09-30 | Midwest Research Institute | Wafer characteristics via reflectometry |
US6969852B2 (en) * | 2004-03-22 | 2005-11-29 | General Phoshonix Llc | Method of evaluating of a scanning electron microscope for precise measurements |
DE102005013831B4 (en) * | 2005-03-24 | 2008-10-16 | Siltronic Ag | Silicon wafer and method for the thermal treatment of a silicon wafer |
JP4758492B2 (en) * | 2009-03-24 | 2011-08-31 | トヨタ自動車株式会社 | Single crystal defect density measurement method |
US9312120B2 (en) | 2014-08-29 | 2016-04-12 | Infineon Technologies Ag | Method for processing an oxygen containing semiconductor body |
CN111128783A (en) * | 2019-12-30 | 2020-05-08 | 深圳第三代半导体研究院 | Longitudinal distribution test system and method for minority carrier lifetime |
CN113271063A (en) * | 2021-04-17 | 2021-08-17 | 山西潞安太阳能科技有限责任公司 | Method for detecting crystal silicon battery defects in three-dimensional scale |
Citations (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
JPH05218166A (en) * | 1992-02-04 | 1993-08-27 | Kawasaki Steel Corp | Method for estimating silicon wafer |
US5272342A (en) * | 1991-07-12 | 1993-12-21 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | Diffused layer depth measurement apparatus |
EP0668613A1 (en) * | 1993-09-09 | 1995-08-23 | Soviet-German Joint Venture "Mamt" | Method of determining the concentration of oxygen in silicon crystals |
JPH0862122A (en) * | 1994-08-24 | 1996-03-08 | Komatsu Electron Metals Co Ltd | Method for evaluating oxygen precipitation defect density of silicon water |
-
1997
- 1997-07-15 EP EP97830354A patent/EP0898298B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1997-07-15 DE DE69738129T patent/DE69738129D1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
-
1998
- 1998-07-01 US US09/108,439 patent/US6197606B1/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
Patent Citations (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5272342A (en) * | 1991-07-12 | 1993-12-21 | Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba | Diffused layer depth measurement apparatus |
JPH05218166A (en) * | 1992-02-04 | 1993-08-27 | Kawasaki Steel Corp | Method for estimating silicon wafer |
EP0668613A1 (en) * | 1993-09-09 | 1995-08-23 | Soviet-German Joint Venture "Mamt" | Method of determining the concentration of oxygen in silicon crystals |
JPH0862122A (en) * | 1994-08-24 | 1996-03-08 | Komatsu Electron Metals Co Ltd | Method for evaluating oxygen precipitation defect density of silicon water |
Non-Patent Citations (3)
Title |
---|
Impurity Diffusion and Gettering in Silicon Symposium, Boston, MA, USA, 27-30 Nov. 1984, H.J. Bath: "Characterization of denuded zones in silicon wafers", pp. 193-198 * |
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 017, no. 657 (E - 1470) 6 December 1993 (1993-12-06) * |
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 096, no. 007 31 July 1996 (1996-07-31) * |
Cited By (2)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP1758158A3 (en) * | 2005-08-26 | 2009-07-22 | Sumco Corporation | Silicon wafer surface defect evaluation method |
US7632349B2 (en) | 2005-08-26 | 2009-12-15 | Sumco Corporation | Silicon wafer surface defect evaluation method |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
US6197606B1 (en) | 2001-03-06 |
DE69738129D1 (en) | 2007-10-25 |
EP0898298B1 (en) | 2007-09-12 |
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